That Karhal is a stronghold of Samajwadi Party (SP) can be gauged from the fact that in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the SP supremo Mulyam Singh Yadav had established a massive lead of 101717 votes over his nearest BJP rival Shatrughan Singh Chauhan in the Karhal assembly segment in spite of the Modi wave which found its fullest expression in the state of Uttar Pradesh.